If you really want to get a grip on the environmental issues facing us all, try stripping off all your clothes. Cue the “stripper� music.
Off comes the sweater, and just before you provocatively drop it onto the floor, have a look at the label … mine says made in Peru. Next come the shoes, Bangladesh (well, they are sneakers). The socks, nothing there. The trousers — now don’t get too excited, this is print, you don’t have to avert your eyes — jeans, made in China. The shirt, made in Taiwan. The undershirt (I’ve played strip poker, the more layers the better), Egyptian cotton made in India. And that leaves the underpants … well, enough said.
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OK, let’s try the same exercise in the kitchen. In the pantry there are canned mushrooms (China). The peas? Canned in America with peas “imported.� Peaches from Argentina, pasta from Italy (made with wheat from Canada), cheese from Wisconsin, salmon from Alaska, ketchup from American organic tomatoes with spices from the Indies, India and South Africa.
The fresh produce in the fridge? Lettuce from near Bakersfield in California, thousands of miles away. Applesauce from Washington state. Some pork from down south somewhere, bacon from Pennsylvania, and jam from Smuckers in Lousiana in a jar made from recycled American glass. Local honey and carrots. Milk from an organic farm as close as possible. Chutney from Pakistan.
Hey, what about the car out front? Oops, forgot to put the clothes back on, sorry neighbors. There, that’s better. OK, let me see, made in the U.S.A.!
But wait, the engine comes from Mexico, the door panels from Canada, the plastic dash bits and pieces from Taiwan or China. The tires … China. What, we don’t make tires here? The paint made in the good ol’ U.S.A. was applied with sprayers from Germany. The robots who welded it all together? Japanese.
The point of this exercise is not to make you want to stop buying the things you need or to stop manufacturers from sourcing components, food or fabric from places where they make them cheaper, better or perhaps uniquely. After all, what timepiece are you wearing? Want to give up reading your watch? Where it is from is less important than where it is, keeping time on your wrist.
Similarly — and pardon me while I put my sweater back on; I like to feel dressed and warm — I really do not care if my sweater comes from a knitting circle in Nebraska or from the Andes in South America. Was it priced right? Does it feel good, keep me warm? Job done. Well, I’m wrong.
Sorry, you all may be standing there naked by now, locked in deep thought.
Our lack of education about where things come from allows — no, forces — supply managers and buyers to seek out those items on a cheapest basis.
Would I have paid, say, $5 more for a similar sweater made in the United States? Had I known there was one, and it was just as good, yes, I would. Why? Because it would have been better for the country (national fiscal security for one thing), have less of an impact on the environment (less oil to transport to my local shop) and it would have cut out a whole series of middlemen and women handling workers who are at least two customs’ zones away.
In short, the knitter in Nebraska could have sold it directly to my local shop, no import/export. The person knitting my sweater in Peru has a cooperative manager, a local distributor, an exporter, an importer and a wholesale company. That’s unfair to the worker as well, who gets pennies. All those mouths to feed cost the environment plenty.
The same thing with my car. Cars are a cutthroat business. Those dashboard bits and pieces could be made in America, saving shipping, handling, oil, warehousing and a whole host of additional environmental costs.
Why aren’t they? Because you and I, the consumer, are not given the option of paying more for our car to help the environment.
Advice to Ford: You sell options on every car (radios, leather seats and so on). Why not offer environmental options? Skip the phony environmental-impact-reducing hybrids and offer me a car made here for the $2,000 more you charge for a “green� hybrid. Made in America, it will actually have less of an impact on the environment than the hybrid car over its lifetime of use.
Please, put your clothes back on, but next time you go to buy something, think about the real cost to the environment.
The more discriminating you are, the more likely the manufacturers will try and meet your needs. If they know you want clothes, they will make them and sell them to you. If they think you want “made in U.S.A.� clothing, that’s what they will offer.
Manufacturers are not anti-environmental, your current tastes are. Time for a change. Time for you to effect real environmental change.
Peter Riva, formerly of Amenia Union, lives in New Mexico.
